Pet names by letter

Sorting names by their first letter looks like the least interesting thing you can do to a catalogue, and it is the thing people search for most. It turns out to be worth doing properly, because the letters are not the same as each other in any respect the data can measure.

L is carried by more animals per name than any other initial. A runs to three syllables twice as often as the catalogue does. J is nearly half dictionary given names and Q is almost none. X holds fewer names than any other letter and one of them accounts for most of its registrations. Each page below says what its own letter is made of before it shows you the list.

Each page says what its own letter is made of before it shows the list: how many names carry it, how they are shaped, what they lean towards and where they run out. That is a different page twenty-six times rather than one page with a letter swapped in.

The small letters are the interesting ones. Q and X hold so little that a single famous name accounts for most of what they have, and any site showing you a comfortably long list for either is showing you something it made up.